reply to post by pop_science
Mentally ill? Wow. I'm sorry, but now people who have conscience fears for the livelihoods of themselves and their families are now "mentally ill"?
I'm sorry but that, my friend, is stepping over the line.
The fact of the matter is this. It doesn't take someone who is "mentally ill" to mistake something like this for something more than just fiction.
The fact that the comic stated it was fiction would have been fine and dandy, but you can be rest assured that the little dandy that sucked everyone
right in was "This is not simply entertainment". Then what the hell else could it be?
People can be ignorant all they want but not it is time to face the fact: the facts are that this little "game" portrayed an actually military drill
as a threat with Ardent Sentry. Looking to the past, you would have to be blind or just completely irrational not to note the fact that some of the
biggest tragedies of the last decade were started under very similar circumstances.
The Blackjack comic was fine and in good fun until it made the claim ITSELF that it was real. Coupling that with a countdown and a series of locations
and warnings, this is what sparked the fear. The fact that some people aren't self-centered enough to believe that their opinions are correct 100% of
the time, and can realize them as opinions, is what led those to believe that maybe... MAYBE this could have been something to be worried about.
When you had people calling law enforcement offices and people who were legitamately scared, that was when you should have pulled the plug. Waiting
until it affected you personally and not giving a damn about what you are doing to the people involved, THAT was where it stepped over the line.
I've said it countless times in this forum, but I have taken part in many, many ARGs. All of them lead to a point. All of them had a purpose. None of
them instilled me with a fear that "this could actually be happening." This was not a game, it was not an ARG, this was a threat, plain and simple.
While it may not have been a "terrorist threat" or "nuclear threat" it was a threat to the safety and well-being of everyone involved.
People were used and fear mongering was intentionally created for NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER. That is what stumps me. Was this all for personal
entertainment? Just to get his jollies off? Or was this to expose the "paranoid doomsdayers" for what they really are?
The fact of the matter is, if it is the former, then you are a sick individual with no moral or ethical value. If it is the later, remember, that it
is these "doomsdayers" that uncover the truth where everyone else is too ignorant to look. It is these "doomsdayers" that break the stories that
your little newspaper is too afraid to come close to.
Either way, Justin Williams should lose his job at the very least. It was the most tasteless thing I have seen in quite sometime to come out of the
internet and most of all, it was for absolutely no legitimate purpose.